So the company I work at doesnt want to keep paying BNSF to store our tank cars because there x3 there rates or somthing like that so in the next 6 months were going to be laying 11,000 feet of track for our own yard and buying an engine [dinner]
Cool! Can you give us any more information about your place of employment? Or, at least keep us posted as to what kind of engine they get! (Pictures…) [;)]
Work at the Dial bar soap plant (now owned by Hinkel - if you use dial bar soap it probly was made here [zzz] ) in Montgomery IL just outside of Aurora, the tracks coming into our plant are off the BNSF line’s from Chicago to Aurora wich also happens to run a few blocks from where I live in Clarendon Hills [8D]
my boss says they dont know what kind of engine were getting but the whole thing is just waiting for corporate aproval they already have all the track plans done and from what i gather are rdy to begin construction once they get the green light
Ill snap some pic’s when there laying track and ofcorse the engine when we get it [dinner]
If they are smart the won’t buy an engine they will lease one. There is a company in Minooka that leases engines.
Looking at Google maps, a large field is on east side of your plant. Would the storage yard be located there? Is the large warehouse to the north yours? I see it is on a neglected little used siding.
yeah we own the field east of the parking log
2 tracks come in, one by the tank loading area that splits into 2 tracks and one by the warehouse thats also 2 tracks but hardly ever used except to store a tank car or two when the other tracks full of cars
trust me its neglected, couple years back there were some empty cars parked on that track for a couple months that were under repair and one day while i was walking out there i noticed a section of rail (under the cars) had unspiked itself and flopped over. They didnt do a great job with drainage in that area it gets flooded alot when we get alot of rain [V]
Hopefully your corporate people know what they are getting into. Hopefully they have read the CFR’s (esp. 49CFR213) and realize that they have responsibilities as track owners, especially if some of those tankers are placarded. (Procter & Gamble knows how to do it the right way, UniLever did not - be governed accordingly.)
Sounds like your plant manager needs to pull out whatever M&O agreement is in place for the existing trackage. Sounds like the FRA could come after your employer bigtime if he isn’t inspecting and maintaining what existing track is already in place.
Ash,
Once upon a time I worked on generators for a company in Aurora. The generator that resides under the Montgomery water tower in your back yard is one of the ones that I used to service. Every time I went to that one, I hoped that the wind was blowing the other way. [xx(] [;)]
lol small world, They just refinished that tower last year [:)]
our factory has a lot of sidings and possibly talked about switching cars ourselves.but then they found out about the liabilities and paperwork involved(as mc stated).
stay safe
joe
BNSF was out moving tank cars around tonight, didnt have a camera with me and its not very well lit back there so IDK what the engines were plus i got paged back to the office 4 times while trying to get a look I managed to scribble the numbers down on my hand the last go round lol. One was 1408 in BNSF colors and the other was 1531 still BN Green [#dots]
So here is what I have heard from the engineering people, our lease on the tracks leading upto the plant is up soon and im told that we cant get our own engine because in switching the cars the engine has to back out onto BNSF tracks to move car’s from the yard (hasnt been built yet) to the tracks where the car’s are currently loaded.
So anyway they told me that were going to be contracting out someone approved by BNSF to come in every day and move car’s [sigh]
BNSF 1432 & 2166 were out there moving tank car’s tonight, looked really cool with all the steam & fog [:D]
Also noticed that all of the GATX tank car’s have 5 pieces of reflective tape placed vertical along the car sides, it was very visable from 1/4 mile away even through the steam & fog, atfirst I didnt know what it was and thought they had some kind of construction stuff blocking the road as it wasnt moving and the 5 pieces of reflective tape looked like a reflective road block [:-^]